The Online Home of Marc Thomas
Web & Graphic Designer from Leeds, UK
I’ve always been a fan of X-Ray Spex and Poly Styrene, so it was truly awful earlier this year when I heard of her death. Even though it was only written last year, this has become one of my favourite Christmas songs (sorry Cliff).
Anthony Gonzalez – under his moniker M83 – released what I think it probably the best album of the year in Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (Spotify Link). The album is far too good to choose one standout track, and I could really be posting any of about 7 songs here but this is just one of the cutest, most epic songs of the year.
Watched this week’s Black Mirror, co-written by husband & wife team Charlie Brooker and Konnie Huq. One thing I’ve noticed about Black Mirror is that the non diegetic music accompanying the series seems to fit beautifully. And this is no exception. I’ve long been a big fan of both Irma Thomas and Charlie Brooker, and found Black Mirror tonight to be spectacular.
So after nearly a year of my old design, I feel it’s time to move on. I loved the old design; it was playful, fun and had a certain childlike feel to it. However, over the past year I’ve matured a lot as both an individual and as a designer and the site simply did not reflect that.
It’s been around 3 months in the making from initial sketches to today, and has even been built completely once only for me to overwrite it by mistake. So I tweaked, tuned and refined to make sure it was even better this time around.
I’ve heard a lot this year about putting content first, and that’s what I’ve tried to do with this site. Gone is the tiny Proxima Nova I used, and instead the gorgeous Skolar is implemented. I think Skolar is one of the fonts that I get the most pleasure out of reading. I also think it reflects the more mature nature of the site perfectly.
This design is adaptive down all the way to iPhones (go on, try resizing!) whereas the old design only served up 2 different layouts (desktop & notebook). I went for an adaptive layout rather than a fully responsive layout purely because I like to have an element of control over how things will look on any given browser.
I have started to write blog posts for work now, and after finding it terrifying at university, I am really enjoying the new challenge this throws at me. It is because of this that I am changing how I’ll use my Journal. I plan on writing more articles and maybe even, heaven forbid, essays in the future to keep me on my toes.
Also I plan on posting helpful small tutorials, small code snippets, or handy Fireworks tips to users. I find these small pointers really helpful so I guess it’s just one way I can give back to the community!
I know there were some speed issues for some UK people before due to my MediaTemple servers being across the pond, but everything’s been optimised to hell so hopefully that won’t be noticeable any more. If you are experiencing problems or have noticed any bugs, it would be super awesome if you would let me know. Also if you have any questions/queries/comments about the redesign let me know in a tweet or comment here!